Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Houston - we have a problem.

Last night, a worrisome
discovery presented itself to me. This happened on top of a very exciting event
– Dr. David Hofmann signed the release giving me permission to use his Safety
Citizenship scale and mailed it to me. I have a piece of paper with his actual
autograph! I cite like 4 of his studies in my work. Not only that, one of the
first things I read when I started down this road was his study with Stetzer
(published in 1996) in which they studied miners in Africa. How exotic it must
have been to enter an African mine to study their adherence to safety procedures. Probably, there
was nothing exotic about it all, but it must have been quite thrilling. I would
have been claustrophobic – I hate caves. Being underground is not at all
appealing. I don’t even like to be in a small room with somebody standing in
the doorway.

The worrisome issue is that
I read that 86% of my sources must be within the last 5 years. If not, then I
must identify the gaps in the literature and explain my sources. Panic. I did
some thematic analysis on my sources, all 236 of them. Only 37% are within the
last 5 years. Not good. But, the analysis shows that I’ve covered every major
topic from the time it became important up through 2010 or more recent, and
really are no gaps of more than 2 years. The guidelines also state I must have
at least 50 sources. More than 100 of mine are within 5 years old. Another
justification is that very little has been published about some of the topics
covered in my literature review. In some cases, I included everything I could
find in peer reviewed journals over the past 15 years (e.g., near miss
reporting, confidentiality in reporting, servant leadership applied to safety
management and performance).

I signed the final
paperwork to close my grandfather’s estate yesterday. With that, he is finally
(really) dead. That was the last thing, the last time I will do something for
him. How strange that things seemed different after I signed. Finality. It was only a short while ago (though really
it was July, 2010) that I sat with him as he drew his last breath on this
earth. It was a relief to see him go – not because I wanted him dead, but
because I wanted his suffering to stop. If he had been an animal, we would have
never let him linger as he did. Someone disagrees with me about the benefits of
a national Death with Dignity law. I’m all for it, and I hope one is available
to me if I need or want it.

Anyway, that’s depressing
stuff and enough of that.My “involved” committee
person reviewed Chapter 3 and commented that it was excellent.She had no corrections or other remarks and
told me she felt certain the review board would be happy with it.I HOPE so, but for now, I'm basking in glory
(well, kind of...but not really).

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About Me

I am a lady who lives in the great state of Kentucky. I consider myself to be middle-aged...no longer young, but definitely not old. I’m married to Someone (he who shall not be named). I have three lovely daughters (Sarah, Erin, and Emily), and a lovely step-daughter, Katie. We have a dog (Gracie) and a cat (Molly). After 37 years working as a computer professional, I transitioned to higher education. I’m an adjunct professor just now, and loving my work.